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Possible bomb-making material found in home of Athens child porn suspect

Budge Earl Williams

Authorities searched a western Athens-Clarke County home for evidence of child pornography, but recently noted in a warrant that they found a basement workshop filled with apparent bomb-making material.

A search of Budge Earl Williams’ home on Fowler Mill Road yielded containers of black powder, rolls of fuse cords, priming adapters, simulator flash artillery, surface trip flares, bags and boxes of various caliber bullets, and pistol magazines, according to a search warrant filed Monday in Clarke County Superior Court.

Williams, 70, was prohibited from possessing firearms as a condition of federal probation he received for selling machine guns to an undercover agent, according to court records.

A U.S. District Court judge on July 11 sentenced Williams to five years on probation after he pleaded guilty to unlawful transfer of a firearm and unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm.

Williams displayed four machine guns on a dining room table, and the agent negotiated a sale for two MAC-10 machine guns and two silencers, according to records.

Williams also took the agent to his basement and opened up two safes that held three more fully-automatic machine guns and three additional silencers, according to records. He told the agent that he had previously conducted illegal weapons sales.

During a subsequent search of Williams’ home, authorities found a file folder of child pornography, but Williams explained that he no longer collected such materials, according to court documents.

The later search was in connection to Williams’ Aug. 6 arrest on a charge of criminal attempt to commit sexual exploitation of a minor.

Oconee County authorities arrested him after he allegedly viewed and downloaded pornographic photographs of young boys at the Oconee County Library.

The search of Williams’ home was conducted by agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and local police three days after his arrest.

Conditions of his federal probation included prohibitions against possession of firearms and sexually explicit materials, plus mandatory mental health treatment.

Williams once was a columnist for the Athens Banner-Herald. He described himself as a local businessman and Vietnam war veteran.

Williams is being held at the Oconee County Jail, where the U.S. Marshals Service placed a hold on him.